Individual Details

Sydney Gordon SMITH

(21 May 1892 - 28 Nov 1940)

Events

Birth	21 May 1892	Jerilderie, New South Wales, Australian Colonies
Occupation	1906	Weighbridge Clerk at Bombo Station for the Railway Dept owned Bombo Quarry.
Military	24 Aug 1914	enlisting on 24 Aug 1914 as No. 102 in the 1st Field Ambulance. He became a stretcher bearer. He sailed on the Euripodis on 19 Oct 1914 and the troops arrived in Alexandria, proceding by train to Camp Mena under the shadow of the great pyramids which they reached on 5 Dec 1914. Then followed 4 months of strenuous training until finally the 1st Field Ambulance went ashore at Gallipoli at 10am 25 Apr 1915. On 27 Jun 1915 he served at Cape Helles assisting the No 11 British Clearing Station for 4 days. On the 9 Sep 1915 he was woudnded in the right leg by shrapnel & evacuated to the Bombay Presidency Hospital in Alexandria, Egypt. By 9 Oct 1915 he was well enough to be moved to nearby Mustarpha Camp where, among other things, they specialised in ridding patients of various parasites. He rejoined his unit at the Serpi Camp Field Hospital at Gallipoli but developed pneumonia and diarrhoea around the end of October and was evacuated to 3rd Australian General Hospital at Mudros (Moudros) on the Greek Island of Lemnos. While there he contracted Paratyphoid (typhoid fever) and on new year's day 1916 he was admitted to the Enteric unit at the 17th General Hospital Alexandria. By 4 March 1916 he was well enough to be transferred to the convalescent unit at Heliopolis and on 31 Mar 1916 he was transferred to Zeitoun (Gaza) ready to rejoin his unit but by the end of April he had been transferred to the 14th Field Ambulance at Ismailia in Egypt and 2 months later, on 19 Jun 1916 he embarked at Alexandria arriving Marsailles on 25 Jun 1916. In France he remained with the 14th Field Ambulance but was attached to 56th Battalion. He would have been part of the unit during the battle of Fromelles where Australia lost over 5,000 men in just 2 days. It is believed he was gassed twice (chlorine) in his time with the 56th Bn. On 2 Feb 1917 he transferred to the 4th Division Signals Company (divisional headquarters for 12 battalions) where he joined his uncle, Capt Robert Smith as his batman & was at Carbie, France when he received word to return to Australia on leave. He embarked on the "Medic" from England on 24 Aug 1918 and he was on his honeymoon in Melbourne when the armistice was signed on the 11 Nov 1918. He was discharged as medically unfit 18 Dec 1918
Marriage	26 Oct 1918	Mortdale Methodist Church, Mortdale, New South Wales, Australia - Stella Lucretia Ross KNIGHT
Occupation	29 Oct 1918	clerk & after the war returned to the Railways Dept, Ways & Works Branch. He studied Accounting & Shorthand at night & reached Grade 5 in the NSW Public Service in 1923
Living	1922	bought with the deferred pay from his army service for 700 pounds (now under Westfield Shopping Centre) - "Corbie", Hurstville, New South Wales, Australia
Occupation	1928	Chief Clerk of the State Coal Mine in Lithgow (Grade 4) & rented "Rosetta" in Macauley St Lithgow with 2 acres of orchard. The house backed onto the mine railway line
Note	1930	bought a 1929 Hudson Super Six car with an all imported steel body weighing 2 tons when shipped
News Pub (ind)	1 Jul 1931	mention is made of Syd in the Sydney Morning Herald Legal Notices with reference to the estate of his mother-in-law Elizabeth Knight as follows: "IN THE SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES.-Probate Jurisdlction.-In the Will of ELIZABETH KNIGHT late of Kiama In the State of New South Wales, Married Woman, deceased. -Application will be made after fourteen days from the publication hereof that Probate of the last Will and Testament of the abovenamed deceased may be granted to GEORGE KING and SYDNEY GORDON SMITH two of the Executors named In the said Will the other Executor FELIX KNIGHT named therein having renounced his right to Probate and all persons having any claim against the Estate of the said deceased are required to forward particulars thereof to the underslgned within the said period and all notices may be served at the undermentioned address RYAN and WATKINS Proctors for the Executors Manning street, Kiama. By their Agents PAYTEN and PYE, 4 Castlereagh street, Sydney"
Living	1932	back in Sydney (15 Park Road)
News Pub (ind)	20 May 1932	mention is again made in the Sydney Morning Herald Legal Notices of Syd & his brother-in-law George King as executors of Elizabeth Knight's will (their mother-in-law): "IN THE SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES -Probate Jurisdiction -In the Will of ELIZABETH KNIGHT late of Kiama in the State of New South Wales, Married Woman deceased -
Occupation	Nov 1932	Grade 3 Public Servant with a posting to Tamworth. Rather than move the family he commuted each month for 2 years. Promoted to Grade 2 he again commuted, this time to Grafton until by 1938 he was appointed the clerk to the Chief Civil Engineer for the railways
Death	28 Nov 1940	a cerebral haemorrhage - Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Burial	28 Nov 1940	(ashes in the Wall of Remembrance - right-hand side) - Woronora Cemetery, Sutherland, New South Wales, Australia

Families

Spouse	Stella Lucretia Ross KNIGHT (1891 - 1977)
Child	Sydney Ross "Ross" SMITH (1921 - 1991)

Father	John Barker SMITH (1861 - 1926)
Mother	Anne (Annie) MULLEY (1868 - 1925)
Sibling	John Olley "Jack" SMITH (1888 - 1915)
Sibling	George Robert SMITH (1889 - 1892)
Sibling	Alice Adelaide SMITH (1894 - 1962)
Sibling	Annie Sylvia Myrtle SMITH (1896 - 1981)
Sibling	Vera Victoria SMITH (1899 - 1983)
Sibling	Ellis Reece "Reece" SMITH (1901 - 1966)

Endnotes